The Bashkir rebellion of 1735–1740 refers to a

rebellion Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

by the

Bashkirs The Bashkirs ( , ) or Bashkorts (, ; , ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Russia. They are concentrated in Bashkortostan, a Republics of Russia, republic of the Russian Federation and in the broader historical region of B ...

against the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. It started in 1735, but was put down by

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

troops in 1740 after a series of heavy clashes.

Background

From at least the time of

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

, there had been talk of Russian pushing southeast toward

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Ivan Kirillov, a Russian commander, drew up a plan to build a fort to be called

Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...

Orsk Orsk () is the second largest city in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, located on the steppe about southeast of the southern tip of the Ural Mountains. The city straddles the Ural River. Population: It lies adjacent to the Kazakhstan–Russia border. ...

at the confluence of the Or River and the

Ural River The Ural, also known as the Yaik , is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan in the continental border between Europe and Asia. It originates in the southern Ural Mountains and discharges into the Caspian Sea. At , it is the third-longes ...

southeast of the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

where the Bashkir, Kalmyk and Kazakh lands join. Construction was started at Orsk in 1735, but by 1743 "Orenburg" was moved about west to its present location. The next planned step was to build a fort on the

Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...

. This would involve crossing the Bashkir country and then the lands of the Kazakh Lesser Horde, some of whom had recently offered a nominal submission. However, a significant portion of the Bashkir population resented this plan.

Rebellion

Kirillov's plan was approved on May 1, 1734 and he was placed in command. He was warned that this would provoke a Bashkir rebellion, but the warnings were ignored. He left Ufa with 2,500 men in 1735 and fighting started on July 1. The war consisted of many small raids and complex troop movements. In the spring of 1736, Kirillov burned 200 Bashkir villages, killed 700 rebels in battle and executed 158. An expedition of 773 men left

in November and lost 500 from cold and hunger. During the time, the Bashkir rebels planned to massacre the sleeping Russians at Seiantusa. The ambush failed. In retaliation, one thousand villagers, including women and children, were put to the sword and another 500 driven into a storehouse and burned to death. Raiding parties then went out and burned about 50 villages and killed another 2,000. Eight thousand Bashkirs attacked a Russian camp and killed 158, losing 40 killed and three prisoners who were promptly hanged. Bashkir rebels also attacked Bashkirs loyal to Russia. The number of Bashkirs loyal to Russia was small and amounted to approximately 150.Акманов И. Г. Башкирские восстания XVII–XVIII вв. Феномен в истории народов Евразии. - Уфа: Китап, 2016. Стр. 191 Leaders who submitted were sometimes fined one horse per household and sometimes hanged. All this was at the time of Empress

Anna of Russia Anna Ioannovna (; ), also russified as Anna Ivanovna and sometimes anglicized as Anne, served as regent of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. Much of her administratio ...

and the

Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739) The Russo-Turkish War of 1735–1739 between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was caused by the Ottoman Empire's war with Persia and the continuing raids by the Crimean Tatars. The war also represented Russia's ongoing struggle for access to the Bl ...

. The rebellion was finally put down in 1740.

Aftermath

Although the Bashkir rebellion cannot be easily summarized, the effects include: * Russian imperial goal of expansion into

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

was delayed due to the rebellion. * Bashkiria (Bashkir country) was "pacified" in 1740. *

was established. * The southern side of Bashkiria was fenced off by the Orenburg Line of forts. It ran from

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

on the

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

east up the Samara River to its headwaters, crossed to the middle

and followed it east and then north on the east side of the

and went east down the Uy River to Ust-Uisk on the

Tobol River The Tobol (, ) is a river in Western Siberia (in Kazakhstan and Russia) and the main (left) tributary of the Irtysh. Its length is , and the area of its drainage basin is . History The Tobol River was one of the four important rivers of the ...

where it connected to the ill-defined "

Siberian Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states si ...

Line" along the forest-

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

boundary. * In 1740 a report was made of Bashkir losses during the rebellion. According to the report, 16,893 Bashkir rebels were killed, 3,236 were captured and forcibly conscripted (they were sent to

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

regiments and fleet), and a further 8,382 women and children were distributed (presumably as

serfs Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed dur ...

), putting the total Bashkir losses at 28,511. Moreover, 12,283 horses, 6,076 cattle and sheep and 9,828

rubles The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is a currency unit. Currently, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the Russian ruble (RUB, ₽) in Russia and the Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus. These currencies are su ...

were extracted from the rebellious Bashkirs as fines. Furthermore, at least 1,175 Bashkir villages were destroyed. As this was compiled from army reports, it excludes losses from irregular raiding, hunger, disease and cold. All this was from an estimated Bashkir population of 100,000. * According to

Vasily Tatishchev Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev (sometimes spelt Tatischev; , ; 19 April 1686 – 15 July 1750) was a statesman, historian, philosopher, and ethnographer in the Russian Empire. He is known as the author of a book on Russian history titled ''The His ...

total losses among Bashkirs amounted to 60,000.

References

External links

Article in the ''Encyclopedia of the Bashkir''

* ttp://enc.permculture.ru/showObject.do?object=1803749470/ Bashkir Rebellion {{DEFAULTSORT:Bashkir Rebellion of 1735-1740 18th-century rebellions History of Bashkortostan Rebellions against the Russian Empire Persecution of Muslims Anti-Asian sentiment Ethnic persecution Genocide of indigenous peoples in Europe Genocides in Europe

Background

Rebellion

Aftermath

See also

References

External links